In a message published on Monday, on the social network he owns, Truth Social, the republican leader considered it imperative that the Honduran National Electoral Council (CNE) finish counting the votes.
The President of the USA accused the Honduran authorities of trying to manipulate the presidential results, when preliminary data show a technical tie between two right-wing candidates, one of them supported by Donald Trump.
“It appears that Honduras is trying to change the outcome of its presidential elections. If they succeed, they will pay a heavy price!”, Trump wrote, without providing any evidence.
In a message published on Monday, on the social network he owns, Truth Social, the republican leader considered it imperative that the Honduran National Electoral Council (CNE) finish counting the votes.
Trump stated that the will expressed by Honduran voters “in overwhelming numbers” must be respected. “Democracy must prevail!”he added.
With almost 57% of the votes already counted, two right-wing candidates are practically tied: the businessman and former mayor of the capital, Tegucigalpa,backed by Trump, and television host Salvador Nasralla.
Asfura, 67 years old, leads the race against Nasralla, 72 years old, by just 515 votes, after the digital count of 57% of the ballot boxes, the president of the CNE announced on Monday, on the social network X.
Ana Paola Hall acknowledged that the narrow margin of victory, considering the margin of error, constitutes a “technical draw”, asked for patience and added that the The manual recount of votes, already underway, could take several days.
“Patience while awaiting official results”
The US State Department had also published a message appealing to “Patience while awaiting official results”. “The results are preliminary and the process must continue until completion”, he stressed.
Far behind in the partial results was the left-wing presidential candidate, Rixi Moncada, 60, supported by the party currently in power in Honduras.
Still, Moncada guaranteed on Monday that the elections “they are not lost yet” and added that it will not recognize anyone as the winner until at least 2,859 tabulation minutes, which it claims were tampered with, are reviewed.
The candidate reiterated the accusation of “foreign interference” in the electoral process by Trump, who had expressed support for Nasry Asfura.
“A few hours before the elections, [Trump] announced the total pardon for drug trafficker Juan Orlando Hernández, a baron condemned by them as the main accomplice in the organization of a criminal cartel for drug trafficking to the United States”, highlighted the candidate.
Trump claimed that, “according to many people” he respects immensely, Hernández was “treated very harshly and unfairly.”
Former Honduran President Hernandez was sentenced in 2024 to 45 years in prison for drug trafficking and weapons-related crimes.
